The convergence and uniqueness of a discrete-time nonlinear Markov chain

In this paper, we prove the convergence and uniqueness of a general discrete-time nonlinear Markov chain with specific conditions. The results have important applications in discrete differential geometry. First, on a general finite weighted graph, we prove the discrete-time Ollivier Ricci curvature flow dₙ₊₁(1-ακ_dₙ)dₙ converges to a constant curvature metric. Then the author in [Theorem 5.1]{M23} proved a Laplacian separation principle on a locally finite graph with non-negative Ollivier curvature. Here we prove the Laplacian separation flow converges to the constant Laplacian solution and generalize the result to nonlinear p-Laplace operators. Moreover, our results can also be applied to study the long-time behavior in the nonlinear Dirichlet forms theory and nonlinear Perron--Frobenius theory. At last, we define the Ollivier Ricci curvature of nonlinear Markov chain which is consistent with the classical Ollivier Ricci curvature, sectional curvature {CMS24}, coarse Ricci curvature on hypergraphs {IKTU21} and the modified Ollivier Ricci curvature for p-Laplace. And we prove the convergence results for the nonlinear Markov chain with nonnegative Ollivier Ricci curvature.